The Child Brides: Send Them to School instead

Here's a sneak-peak into life of one of the many farmers' girls from the tribal belt in Rajasthan. Timi is an only child, her father suffers from a handicapped foot and is unable to work. Her mother leaves the village every day for a small town nearby where she carries out general level work to procure the family’s miniscule daily wages.

2 Educate Girls interns recently spent a day with Timi at her home to learn more about the daily life of a non-school going girl in rural India. They watched her carry out her duties from the cleaning of the family home and preparation of rotis before sunrise to the feeding and milking of the family’s goats, collection of water and firewood, preparation of the family dinner and another cleanup of the home before taking rest.

Particularly unsettling was a moment when Timi, on the farm tending to the goats, witnessed a band of girls walking together in uniform to the local school.

When asked, Timi described her feeling toward her current situation as “confused and torn” – she feels a very strong sense of duty to her mother and father but would also love to be at school with the other children her age. Without and education she voiced that she sees a future of early marriage, children and the same repetitive daily duties that she undertakes today.

Educate Girls recognizes the enormity of work of, in particular, farming families and how valuable a resource the children are on the farms. Many individual cases have been negotiated between Educate Girls and the out-of-school-girl families, in which girls may attend a half-day at school so that house and farm work does not suffer. On this particular day, Timi’s father approached Educate Girls to discuss the prospect of re-enrolling Timi in school.

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